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With a leather couch, foosball table and a vintage refrigerator stocked with soft drinks, the
place looks like the coolest rec room in town.

But it’s actually the new Aero Studio store at Easton Town Center, a first-of-its-kind location
for teen clothing retailer Aeropostale.

The mattress-spring chandelier and table made from bowling-alley flooring are designed to help
create a fun, comfortable destination in which teens can hang out and shop. Music also is part of
the scene, with local bands’ tunes among those piped in.

The store has been almost a year in the making and came about serendipitously, officials at
Easton and Aeropostale said.

“We were working on a new store for their existing line,” said Beau Arnason, executive vice
president of Easton operator Steiner + Associates.

But the space that Aeropostale had wanted wasn’t available. Another space was free, but with a
much shorter lease of two years, rather than the typical five or 10.

By luck, the new lease and the new space seemed to fit in with some ideas that Aeropostale
officials had been toying with for a while, said MaryJo Pile, an Aeropostale executive vice
president and former Limited Brands employee.

“The rules are completely changing in retail, especially with the teen market,” she said. “We
realized if you built a store, it could lose its relevancy in a year and a half.”

So the chance to experiment without a long-term commitment was timely.

Some have quipped that the 3,200-square-foot store, with its bohemian mix of distressed vintage
fixtures, rustic bric-a-brac and urban loft atmosphere, is “Homage meets Anthropologie.”

That observation suggests, accurately, that some of the design ideas aren’t new, said Eric
Daniel, creative director at retail design firm Fitch.

“How many brands have tried in-store lounges? Too many,” Daniel said. The idea is to “displace
productive merchandise from the floor to create a place for customers to spend more time. But the
fact is, if they wanted your merchandise, they would spend time with your brand buying
product."

Perhaps so, but the company definitely needs to do something to improve sales numbers, said Matt
Wilson, general manager at SBC Advertising, who follows retail.

“With Aeropostale, they are at a point of their fashion life cycle where they need to be better
and do better, particularly after getting their lunch eaten by American Eagle last back-to-school
and holiday season.”

During the most recent quarter, sales at the more-than-900-store Aeropostale chain decreased
more than 12 percent to $395.9 million compared with a year ago.

Partly as a result, Aeropostale stock is trading near its 52-week lows, in the $3-and-change
range. Its 52-week high was $15.73.

The Aero Studio store is a way “to rethink and reinvent,” Pile said.

While the fixtures and furnishings are eye-catching — and for sale, if anyone’s interested — the
object of the game is to sell clothes.

The new venue is being used to particular advantage as a showcase for its sub-brands. For
teenage girls, that includes a collection by video blogger Bethany Mota as well as a collection
inspired by the TV show
Pretty Little Liars. For boys, Free State is being featured; it’s a new crowd-sourced
T-shirt line.

To help facilitate sales, shoppers also can jump on one of two iMacs stationed on a low-slung
table — it has a chalk sign: “Hi I’m Mac, I have your size” — in case they can’t find an item in
the store and want to order online. Shipping’s free if orders are placed on the iMacs.

Use of technology at the store doesn’t stop at those computers. To engage with customers via
social media, the store has a display rack featuring the top trending items on WaNeLo, the online
shopping community. The store also has an Instagram account, @AeroStudio, where teens can follow “
Doug,” the deer-head mascot hanging on the wall.

The iMac stations and social media allow the retailer to examine customer data and behavior.

“Aeropostale will be able to create a refined profile of customers in their new store purely by
the usage of tablets, Wi-Fi and email during the store visit,” SBC Advertising’s Wilson said. “That
makes it easier to market on a micro-level to this individual,” as well as match that marketing to
customers with similar taste.

The interactive approach is an intrinsic part of the store design, Pile said.

“Brands can no longer dictate to customers what’s going on,” she said. “It’s all been turned
upside down. One way for us to reinvent ourselves is to listen to the kids and find out what they
want. What are they looking at? Where are they going? What’s intriguing? We like that iMac area a
lot.”

The experiment is working well so far — so well that the company plans to open a second store in
the next few months to see how the concept translates in other locations.

“The retail world doesn’t need another store,” Pile said. “It doesn’t. There’s this whole new
phenomenon to get customers to experience brands in a unique way. It puts the onus on us to be a
lot more creative.”